Enantioselective oxidation of secondary alcohols by the flavoprotein alcohol oxidase from Phanerochaete chrysosporium

The enantioselective oxidation of secondary alcohols represents a valuable approach for the synthesis of optically pure compounds. Flavoprotein oxidases can catalyse such selective transformations by merely using oxygen as electron acceptor. While many flavoprotein oxidases preferably act on primary alcohols, the FAD-containing alcohol oxidase from Phanerochaete chrysosporium was found to be able to perform kinetic resolutions of several secondary alcohols. By selective oxidation of the (S)-alcohols, the (R)-alcohols were obtained in high enantiopurity. In silico docking studies were carried out in order to substantiate the observed (S)-selectivity. Several hydrophobic and aromatic residues in the substrate binding site create a cavity in which the substrates can comfortably undergo van der Waals and pi-stacking interactions. Consequently, oxidation of the secondary alcohols is restricted to one of the two enantiomers. This study has uncovered the ability of an FAD-containing alcohol oxidase, that is known for oxidizing small primary alcohols, to perform enantioselective oxidations of various secondary alcohols.